The Spider and the Fly
by Oboebyrd
Summary: A villain comes to the Titans in need of help... to save not only herself, but Cyborg, as well. Treachery, however, runs as deep as the waters around Titan's Tower, and nothing can be trusted... Prequel to 'Fairweather Friends.'
1. The Black Widow

**The Spider and the Fly**

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans. I do, however, own the Black Widow, and the other, as of yet unnamed antagonist in this piece. No stealing! You can borrow, however, and if you want to, e-mail me.

A/N: A tag to 'The 12 Labors of Cyborg.' Read it, if you'd like. This one, however, is much darker, as is evidenced by the rating. This should be a long one, folks, so don't expect regular updates! Sorry! It'll be worth it in the end, I promise.

**Chapter 1: The Black Widow**

_Will you walk into my parlour?" said the spider to the fly;  
"'tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy.  
The way into my parlour is up a winding stair,  
and I have many curious things to show when you are there."  
"Oh no, no," said the little fly, "to ask me is in vain,  
for who goes up your winding stair can ne'er come down again."  
From 'The Spider and the Fly' by Mary Howitt_

It was nearing 2 a.m., and a crisp, cool quiet had worked its way through Titan's Tower. The teen superheroes, active until the wee hours whenever necessary, were now asleep, resting after a long day and evening of battling crime and keeping the good people of Jump City safe from any who would dare to spoil it. A few monitors beeped, reverently quiet, but they had nothing important to say, and kept it to themselves.

Though all were asleep, not all were asleep in the traditional sense of the word. Raven was drifting through a beautifully dark world just below the skin of the one the rest of her teammates inhabited. There, the darkness was absolute… there, not even Beast Boy's cajoling could awaken her. It was a state of meditation she had spent all of her lifetime up to this point trying to achieve… a success that would have excited her, had the world she was now drifting through been open to the concept of emotions or success.

Cyborg, also, was not quite asleep but not quite awake. Recharging his battery did not require sleep, not in the human sense… and though he dreamed, they were waking dreams, pixilated and distant as clouds. His mechanical fingers drummed on the table, as if impatient with all of this regenerative waiting.

That was when, in the furthest corner of his cybernetic mind, he caught the slightest blip on one of the alarms. His human mind, bored in a way machinery never could be, snatched up that one distraction in a flash… and just as quickly, the machine recharging his batteries (they had been as close to full as they had ever been) shut down, and Cyborg was sitting off, pulling the power cord off of his chest. He moved towards his door, snapping the machinery shut over his power cell, and then started down the darkened hallways, heading towards the front door.

It was probably nothing… that slight blip on the radar. Well, maybe it had been a duck… once or twice, it had been a duck, or a seagull. And once, it had been Gizmo… so this was worth checking out, and besides, he had nothing else to do except to sleep. As Cyborg approached the main door, where the machinery now buzzing to life around him assured him that the slight disturbance was, a soft tapping noise filled the main hall. Someone was knocking. Well… maybe it wasn't so much a threat after all.

Cyborg threw open the door, entirely unready to see the person who stood there, arms wrapped around herself. But that didn't stop him from instantly throwing up his sonic cannon, and pointing the humming engine of destruction directly at her head.

"Well, the Black Widow," he said. "You never write, you never call… and then you break out of jail? Tssk."

The girl standing there with Cyborg's deadliest weapon an inch away from her head didn't look afraid, or even nervous. Well, any more nervous than usual. The perpetual hang-dog expression, highlighted and enhanced by the soft blue glow of the sonic cannon, remained from the last time he had seen her. As had the long brown hair and the freakishly thin ('insectoid,' he thought) waist. She was silent for a moment, just staring at him… the Black Widow, at his doorstep… possibly one of the vilest human beings in the world, who had eaten an untold number of humans and had tried to put Cyborg on her menu, too. On his doorstep. Her. "Can I come in?"

Cyborg could have laughed… actually, he did. The whole situation was just… absurd… and a little terrifying, too, had he not been who he was. "You want to wait in here for the cops to come pick you up? Sure- that sounds like a great plan, spider," he said, grabbed her by the front of the shirt (which was not prisoner garb) and dragged her into the main hall. He let go of her, and one hand hovered over his communicator- but he didn't touch it, not quite yet. Instead, he just stared at her, his good sense, for a moment at least, overrun by humanity's desire to _look at_ horrible things.

And because somewhere, deep in his brain or his heart, he wanted more revenge on her than he had gotten.

The Black Widow slowly rolled her eyes, crossing her arms in front of her chest. She stared at Cyborg… he stared back, cybernetic eye pulsing with an intense red light, human eye fixed and hard. It took a moment of drumming her fingers on her arm, and a sigh… but finally, the Black Widow spoke.

"Listen. I'm sorry I tried to eat you."

This was delivered in such a reasonable tone of voice that Cyborg was more than simply taken aback. "You're sorry…" he repeated slowly, careful to catch every word, "…that you tried to… eat me. You're sorry? That's it?"

"What else do you expect me to say?" the Black Window demanded. There was a faint air of outrage in her voice… and that made Cyborg want to wring her neck. In fact… he reached out one enormous metal hand, and grabbed her by the throat, yanking her forward. Human, she was slighter even that Starfire, so stood no chance against that sort of an attack. "Now, explain why you're here… and make it better than 'I'm sorry.'"

With the miserable, hang-dog expression that was her trademark, she started- or tried to start- to explain. "I'm here to ask for help. Someone is trying to kill me," she choked.

Cyborg laughed maliciously. "You have a lot of nerve, coming to the Titans for help."

Black Widow closed her eyes for a moment, mouth opening and closing like the mouth of a beached fish. Cyborg loosened his grip slightly… not enough for any more than the most staggered of responses. "Not the… Titans… you. I came to… you," she gasped.

That startled Cyborg enough that, for half a second, he loosened his grip… before tightening it all the more. "Oh, you came to _me_. That's funny, I could have sworn that I was the one you tried to turn into an after-dinner mint. Why would I want to help you? Or better yet… why don't I just hand you back over to the person that's trying to kill you? Or do it myself?" Cyborg's impressive mechanical strength tightened his grip around her throat exponentially. For half a second, the Black Widow's eyes were almost bulging out of her head… her face, at least, was turning a shade of red that matched the hideous hourglass he had once seen printed on her stomach.

But despite all of that, she laughed. It was a dry, brittle chuckle that must have been painful to force out of her throat, given her current situation… but it was a laugh. That enraged Cyborg all the more… but despite himself, he loosened his grip. "Mind sharing what's so funny?"

"You don't have the guts," she choked out.

Cyborg gritted his teeth together. "No? Let's test that theory," he growled, and started once again to squeeze. Maybe he'd pop her head right off… and when Robin demanded an explanation for the resulting mess, Cyborg would just say she-

"They're coming after you, too," she said evenly, voice a faint rasp.

Despite this little piece of knowledge, Cyborg didn't relent for another half a second- and then without warning, he dropped her. Black Widow hit the ground hard, shoulder blades cracking audibly against the tiling- followed closely by the duller crunch of the back of her head. Apparently, a few months in jail made her quite a bit less nimble than she had been before.

The Black Widow just lay there, stunned and still trying to catch her breath, as Cyborg stared down menacingly at her. "Explain, and make it quick. I have a very short attention span."

"Pauk," she replied, quietly, as if the name was painful to say. "His name is Pauk. He's a… spider. Like me, only… not. Worse. He's worse," the Black Widow moved one slim hand to her red, swollen throat, all the while staring ahead intensely. She made no attempt to sit up- Cyborg realized he had really hurt her, which was her own tough luck for coming to the Tower, but… he shouldn't have been able to hurt her at all. "A… a spider _god_."

"And why is this big, hairy monster looking for me?" Cyborg asked, now crossing his arms across his broad chest. A small smirk invaded his features.

Black Widow half sat up- Cyborg pushed her back down to the ground with one foot on her shoulder. "I don't know," she replied, glaring up at him. "All I know is that he _is_, and that's not a threat to be taken lightly. He has far too much power…"

Finally, the other Titans had come to see what all of the crashing had been about. Beast Boy was the first to arrive- as a dog- when he saw the Black Widow, his hackles stood straight up on end, and a long, vicious snarl escaped from between frighteningly long fangs. Those fangs only grew longer as the green shapeshifter took the form of a hyena instead. Black Widow, who was on the ground only a few inches away from him, and thus had a spectacular view of those shining bone knives, visibly paled. That wasn't normal, either.

"What is _she_ doing here?" Robin demanded, arriving just on the tail of Beast Boy. He quickly saw that Cyborg had the situation under control… but the question was way too natural, too much of a knee-jerk reflex, not to say.

Cyborg leaned a little heavier on the foot that was pressing the Black Widow against the ground. "She was nice enough to stop by and warn me that a giant spider is going to try and eat me," he replied glibly.

Black Widow laughed again, despite the teeth hovering an inch away from her throat and the metal boot now literally bending her ribs. "Eat you? He won't _eat_ you…" anymore was cut off as Cyborg put just a _little_ extra weight on that foot…

"That's funny, sweet heart, I thought that was giant spider etiquette… eating everything in sight," Cyborg said snidely.

"You're comparing Pauk to me… and that is a deadly mistake. I am not half the threat he is… and if I meant to come in to eat you, I would not have knocked on your front door…" the Black Widow choked.

By now, Starfire had arrived- the last of the Titans that could be reached, at least until Raven came out of her meditative stupor. The Tamaranean glared down at the Black Widow, eyes glowing with malice. "Fair enough," Cyborg was saying, "So why is Pauk going after _you_, then? Is he looking for a good spider screw?"

The slightly reproachful look on Robin's face when Cyborg said that was almost worth it… it would have been more satisfying had the Black Widow reacted at all. "Perhaps, but I doubt it."

Evidently deciding the banter had gone just about far enough, Robin reached forward with one bare hand (he had not had time to slip on gloves before coming downstairs) and put it on Cyborg's arm, pulling him back. Cyborg, who certainly couldn't be moved by Robin alone, did take a step back… which was a shame, because he was rather starting to enjoy the feeling of the Black Widow's ribs under his boots. "Alright, for those of us who missed the first part of the conversation… who, exactly, is Pauk?" Robin demanded.

Black Widow stared at him resentfully… and quietly. "If you expect me to help you, you'd better talk to Robin, because all I'll help you do is rearrange your grey matter, spider," Cyborg growled.

With a deep breath, and a slight cough, the Black Widow started over. "Pauk is… a sort of spider god, or at least a god of spiders. I suppose you'd call him a demon," she smiled ruefully. "He's incredibly powerful… and almost unstoppable, in this realm and especially in his own. I honestly do not know why he is coming for you, Cyborg, but I know he is… on that you will have to trust me."

"Trust. Hmm, interesting word coming for you," Cyborg muttered.

"How can you know all of this?" Robin demanded, a moment later. He didn't like how… personally… Cyborg seemed to be taking this.

The Black Widow finally sat up, crossing her legs elegantly in front of her. "I just… do. And believe me, I know how that sounds. But wolves in a pack always know where their companions are, don't they? And in a sense, this is much the same thing. I can sense Pauk's evil intentions… but I don't know where he is, or how I might be able to stop him…"

Cyborg resisted the urge to laugh once again- or ventilate her chest with his sonic cannon. How honorable and innocent she seemed in her race to save her own neck! He didn't believe a word of it… because she was a liar, a liar and a _monster_, and to forget that would mean death.

"Alright, Black Widow," Robin was saying, "I think you've wasted enough of our time. We're taking you back to jail… and don't worry about 'Pauk.' We'll give you adjacent cells." Robin did not hesitate over his communicator, as Cyborg had.

Black Widow growled at him… but recoiled as Beast Boy stepped in between the two, a much fiercer snarl on his canine teeth. Only a moment later, Robin had flipped off his communicator. "They'll be here in a moment… and I'm sure they'll be wondering how you managed to slip out, Widow. Guess its back to the web for you," he smiled grimly at that rather foolish joke, and turned towards Starfire. "See if you can wake up Raven… if this Pauk is a demon, she might know of him."

Starfire nodded, and floated upstairs. Beast Boy sat down, but still kept those vicious fangs bared. And Cyborg… he just glared at the Black Widow, the hatred almost palpable. "You wanted asylum, you got it… the asylum with the nice white coats, Black Widow. If you want to go all spidery on us and try to escape, now's your chance… believe me, I've been looking forward to an opportunity to smash you flat for quite some time."

The Black Widow didn't move. Though she did slightly smile. "I can no more 'go all spidery' anymore than you can," she said quietly.

And then there came the sound of sirens and a helicopter's beating blades as the police arrived at the Tower.


	2. Parlor

**The Spider and the Fly**

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans. I do, however, own the Black Widow and Pauk (As characters, at least.) No stealing! You can borrow, if you e-mail me first.

A/N: This is the prequel/lead-in to 'Fair-Weather Friends' (which so many of you seemed to have wanted!) and a sequel to 'The 12 Labors of Cyborg.'

Rated for character death, language and theme.

**Chapter 2: Parlor **

_What are you doing here… little girl… here in the dark?_

_Get out. You're not supposed to be here._

_I'm coming, so it'll all be okay…_

_The darkness spreads… the darkness spreads…_

_There are spiders everywhere down here in the Underneath… the place is lousy with them. They crawl up the walls, across the ceiling, over the floor, up the legs of anyone who stands there. But Raven doesn't have to worry about spiders… not really. At least, she does not have to worry about the small ones, about the _baby_ spiders that stare at her hungrily from the darkest corners of the room. She does not even have to worry about the _big_ spiders, the ones whose webs she pushes through with one careless hand._

_No, the one she must worry about is the _one_ that sits in the center of an enormous room. It is of such a great size that she knows it could swallow her with one great gasp of those hideous mandibles. The stench of it is terrible and deathly. Despite this, Raven is not afraid- does not 'do' fear, as she had once phrased it._

_He slowly stretches his twelve legs… whoever heard of a spider with twelve legs? He stands upon those twelve (eight) legs, and regards Raven with twelve (eight) intelligent but ugly eyes. He _knows_ her… _

_And Raven _knows_ him…_

"Friend Raven!" There was a loud knocking at Raven's door… Starfire's alien strength and over enthusiasm made each rap as powerful as the blow of a drum… or perhaps it was just Raven's imagination that makes them seem so amplified.

Nevertheless, not even Starfire's most enthusiastic knocking could get Raven's mind out from Underneath. It didn't take long for Starfire to figure that out… so with a deep breath, the golden-skinned alien pushed open the door to Raven's room. The half-demon was floating, with her back to Starfire. "I am sorry to intrude, Raven, but Robin wishes to see you downstairs. Something about a… demon."

Still, Raven did not move. Every instinct inside Starfire's body told her to turn around, to head back downstairs, to tell Robin that Raven was unreachable, in a state of meditation not even Armageddon could break. But she didn't.

Instead, Starfire laid one deceptively slim, powerful hand on Raven's shoulder. "Friend Raven…" she repeated tentatively. And then she drew back, sharply, fear in her glittering green eyes. Raven's shoulder had been as cold as ice… _colder_ than ice, a temperature that not even the vacuum of space could hope to match…

Raven then wheeled around, turned without seeming to move. "Get _out_," she snarled, and there was rage in her features… and pure, unearthly malice in her eyes. Starfire almost screamed, instead just gasped- and was gone out through the door in a heartbeat. She turned once past the thresh hold… staring back into Raven's room, back at the powerful creature whose eyes were fixed on the alien. Those eyes held… rage, nothing less, though perhaps something more.

"Raven…" Starfire repeated, timidly, stretching out one hand towards her friend.

The door slammed shut.

Starfire stared at it for the longest time… but knew better than to try to enter once again. Instead, she turned on her heel and headed downstairs, down to where Cyborg was gleefully stuffing the Black Widow into a police car while Beast Boy and Robin watched attentively. Robin gave Starfire the slightest of nods when she walked up… the four Titans waited until the sound of sirens had faded out entirely before any of them spoke.

"So… good morning, everyone," Beast Boy said, with a broad, hopeful smile. "Is anybody but me getting tired of all the weird wake up calls?"

"There is something the matter with Raven," Starfire said, at the exact same moment.

"When she meditates, she can seem kind of dead… it's okay, Star," Beast Boy said with a small smile.

Starfire shook her head rapidly, "No, it's not that… not that at all. She… she was cold. Freezing. And when she looked at me, those eyes… those eyes were worse than… I do not know the words to say it in English, but in my world they call it dylji," she said.

Robin and Cyborg traded a glance that left Beast Boy completely out. "Can you at least give us a rough translation, Star?" Robin asked, after a moment.

Starfire took a deep, shuddering breath. "Perhaps… spirit self. But… in an evil way…"

Beast Boy shook his head, holding up both gloved hands. "C'mon, guys, let's at least go see Raven before we call her evil!" he exclaimed, and bounded up the hallways towards Raven's room. The other three Titans followed right on his heels.

They hesitated at the door to Raven's room. They all knew what happened when they intruded on Raven… but they had to see it for themselves. After a long moment, Beast Boy lifted one slightly shaking knuckle to the door. He knocked a few times… when there was no immediate response, he banged on the door with both fists. "Hey Raven! Can we c- can you come out?"

The only answer to Beast Boy's half-quip half-question was silence from the other side of the door. Robin knocked, this time, much more conservatively than Beast Boy had. "Raven? We need to speak with you," he said. If Starfire's assessment was wrong, Raven would be annoyed to have been interrupted in her meditation… but a miffed Raven was much easier to handle than an evil one. "Raven?"

Again, no answer. It was time to test Raven's good faith then, it seemed. Robin glanced back at his fellow Titans, shrugged, and opened the door to Raven's room.

Predictably, she was standing right behind the door. Beast Boy, the closest to her, jumped back with a shout of surprise. Raven's expression did not change… she did not seem to have any sort of expression on her face at all. "Didn't you hear us knock?" Robin demanded.

Again, only a blank stare from Raven. She stepped through her door, letting it close behind her, and regarded her teammates coldly. "I did."

"Then why didn't you answer?" Robin demanded.

Beast Boy and Cyborg stared intensely at Raven, looking for some hint of that… dyljiggity or whatever that Starfire had mentioned. Starfire was looking for the same thing. However, now nothing seemed amiss… she looked just as closed and emotionless as ever.

The telekinetic glanced over Robin's shoulder at Starfire for a moment, aware of her stare but not either of the other's. And then, she turned her attention back to Robin. "I was going to. But you got to the door before me, it seems," and there was just enough of her cold humor in that remark to relax Robin… but Starfire wasn't convinced.

"Uhm, sorry," Robin said, and shrugged.

Raven gave him the dubious honor of another disparaging glare, before starting down the hall. Without a second's hesitation, Starfire was following her, bobbing along on the other Titan's heels. The other three Titans watched them go, before trading glances. Cyborg just shrugged. "Just another creepy addition to a bad night, I suppose."

"Told Starfire that Raven was all dead-looking and stuff when she meditated," Beast Boy said proudly, puffing up his thin chest.

Robin just rolled his eyes, and headed back towards his room. Time to catch up on the sleep that being a super-hero seemed to keep away from him…

Raven moved swiftly, almost aimlessly, up the halls of Titan's Tower. She seemed, if nothing else, to be attempting to set foot in every hallway there was. Starfire tagged along behind her, watching Raven's cloak as it shifted and danced as she moved. Raven did not look in a spirit to be approached for any sort of conversation… but those of dylji never really did.

"Friend Raven?" Starfire ventured, after a moment.

Raven sighed. "I was wondering when you were going to stop following me and say something."

Starfire smiled despite herself, and drifted forward to catch up fully with Raven. The telekinetic glanced sideways at her… and then turned up another hallway. "I am sorry for intruding earlier, Raven… but you did not seem yourself. Are you well, now?"

"I'm doing ju-ust fine," Raven replied, in her classic, sarcastic drawl.

Starfire beamed, but she was a little suspicious as well… could not afford to be anything but wary. After all, she had seen Raven's dark side… but could there be a side even darker than that? Was that the side she had seen in those dark eyes? If it was, then she and her friends were in danger. If it wasn't, then she was simply being foolish.

A large window loomed ahead. Raven stopped alongside it, and started out into the paling darkness. Dawn was approaching, and it was looking to be a lovely sunrise. Rosy buds slowly unfurled onto the black velvet sky, and the stars faded randomly from view in the confusion of early morning. Starfire found herself watching the slow ascent of morning, for a minute completely forgetting about Raven… and the question she had been sent to fetch her for.

"Raven," Starfire breathed quietly, almost unwillingly, not really wishing to disrupt the view, "There is a question I meant to ask you…"

"I know," Raven interrupted. "And trust me when I say _you_ don't want to."

There was another moment of silence as Starfire pondered this. There was something just… wrong… about this whole situation. Perhaps it was the dawn-hours… her friends preferred waking up well until the day, and she had fallen into their same schedule… or perhaps it was the simple oddness of having a cannibal appear on the front steps in the middle of the night… or perhaps it really _was_ Raven. Starfire couldn't say… didn't _want_ to, in case she was wrong. And this was not something it was acceptable to be wrong on.

"You know what I intended to ask about?" Doubt weighed heavily on Starfire's voice. She did not even try to mask it. "Pauk?"

Starfire watched the reflection of Raven's face in the glass. Her eyes darkened once again… darkened terribly. An arc of cold ice ran down Starfire's spine… not fear, not revulsion, but a wary mixture of the two. Dylji. So what did it mean?

Perhaps it had something to do with the Black Widow… more than likely, it had something to do with Raven's recent, new form of meditation. She had said she was going… where… to the Underworld? Underworks?

Raven shook her head, slowly laughed. "The Underneath."

Another cold shiver worked its way from Starfire's neck and straight down her back. "Raven… though I appreciate your assistance, I did not give you permission to enter my mind…"

The blue cloak in front of her shifted and danced as Raven slowly turned. There was a faint smile on her lips. "Sorry," she said… but it was clear she didn't mean it. Not only was her voice insincere, but those eyes…

It was growing paler and paler outside. The sun appeared on the horizon… a faint, white line of light just above the bay. Starfire glanced quickly between that and the eerie eyes of Raven… neither one was of a particular comfort at the moment. "Perhaps we should go speak with Robin," she suggested, lamely.

"No," Raven mumbled, laying one hand on Starfire's shoulder. "I'd much rather talk to you."

Downstairs, Beast Boy was making breakfast. Eggs, or something fairly close to it… Cyborg was watching with a critical eye as his little green friend fried them up. "Those had better not be tofu-eggs, Beast Boy," the half-metal man warned.

Beast Boy gave his friend a thumb's up, before turning back to his frying pan and rolling his eyes. Raven entered the room, then… the telekinetic looked absolutely bewildered.

"Hey, Raven!" Beast Boy called, excitedly. "Want some eggs?"

"No… no, I think I'll be alright," Raven said, but sat down at the table across from Cyborg, anyway.

Cyborg watched her for a moment. She looked… haggard. That wasn't natural for Raven, no matter how early or how rudely she had been woken up. "Are you okay?" Raven just shrugged, and Cyborg sighed. "Well… did you talk to Star?"

"No," Raven said, and picked at her sleeve. "I haven't seen her all morning."


End file.
